This book presents a simplified version of Stephen Hawking’s earlier
work. It has been updated with content on quantum mechanics, string
theory, the big bang theory, and other topics. The book is illustrated
and helps readers understand Hawking’s earlier theories with ease. It
also covers the latest updates on the subjects and brings greater detail
in a very accessible format.

About the Authors

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist,
cosmologist and the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical
Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. He is best recognized in
the scientific community for his collaborative works with Roger Penrose
on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general
relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit
radiation, often called Hawking radiation.

Best known for his A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, On The Shoulders of Giants and The Grand Design,
Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS). He is almost completely paralysed and uses a speech
generating device to communicate.

Leonard Mlodinow is an American physicist and writer.
He is best known in scientific circles for co-developing a new type of
perturbation theory for eigenvalue problems in quantum mechanics and for
his work on the quantum theory of dielectric media with M. Hillery. He has also written The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives and Euclid's Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace. He is the recipient of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.